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From the Weekly Bulletin (week of October 2, 2011)

posted Dec 4, 2011, 10:25 PM by Ilya Buchkin

Free Lunch Program Volunteering-

This Tuesday, October 4, members from St. Raphael
Church are scheduled to help serve meals at the Free Lunch Program held
in the Wesley Center (120 N. Dubuque St.) from 11:30AM-1:30PM. If you
are able to help this month, please let Fr. Ignatius know.

Georgian Classical Guitar Concert- St.
Raphael's own Tariel Iberi will be performing a concert of his own
compositions this Friday, October 7th at 7PM at the church. In lieu of
admission, a freewill donation will be accepted, which will support the
church's building fund. If you can help distribute promotional posters
around town, please speak with Fr. Ignatius or Tariel.

Daily Orthodox Study Bible Readings for the Week- Following are the readings for this week:

Parking Considerations for Oct. 9- On Sunday
October 9, the annual Run for the Schools will be held on the streets
of Iowa City, including right in front of our church building. The
Johnson County Sheriff informs us that College St. will be shut down
between Linn St. and Muscatine Ave., beginning 5AM that day; Gilbert St.
will be shut down between Washington and Burlington Streets, beginning
at 6AM. Dodge and Governor Streets will also be shut down near the
church beginning at 6AM. It would be a good morning to walk or bike to
church if you are close enough. Otherwise, it is suggested that you
rely on Lucas and Johnson when traveling north or southbound near the
church, and Washington and Burlington when traveling east or westbound
near the church. Unless you can find street parking on Lucas, Johnson,
Washington or Iowa, you should plan on parking in the parking garage a
few blocks to the west of the church by entering on Washington between
Van Buren and Gilbert. All roads should be re-opened by noon.

Thank You-

Thank you to Irakliy Surguladze for installing our
new safe. This will greatly improve security as we continue to be good
stewards of the money God has entrusted us with.

IARGUS 2011 Gala Concert-
The International Annual Russian Guitar Festival (IARGUS) is fast
approaching. The festival culminates with the Gala Concert to be held
on Sunday, October 9 at 7PM at the Congregational Church (30 N. Clinton
St.) Admisison is $12. For more information, go to: www.iarmac.org

SOYO Special Olympics Awareness Sunday- October 16-

On Sunday, October 16, our teens will solicit your
financial donations to enable them to help sponsor the 31st Annual
Special Olympics Sports Camp at the Antiochian Village in the summer of
2012. Please be generous in helping our teens raise (nationally) a
total of $50,000. As an expression of our teen's gratitude for your
support pf this important project, you will receive an icon bookmark of
Christ the Good Shepherd.

Byzantine Chant Workshop- Richard Barrett,
chanter and choir director at All Saints Orthodox Church in Bloomington,
IN will be giving a Byzantine chanting workshop at St. Raphael Church
on Saturday, October 15, and Sunday, October 16. Registration is $30.
For more information, contact Matthew Arndt at matthew-arndt@uiowa.edu.

Teen SOYO Movie Night-

Our next teen youth group movie night will be on
Tuesday, October 18 at 5:30PM. Pizza will be provided. We will watch
"Though None Go With Me." Over the next few weeks, Teen SOYO will be
sharing with us about their upcoming service project to provide items to
fill care packages for US troops. Stay tuned.

The Geneva Lecture Series presents- Sociologist
Dr. Christian Smith will lecture based on his book, "Souls in
Transition: The Cultural and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults." This
free lecture will be held on Tuesday, October 18 at 7:30PM in Philips
Hall at the University of Iowa. For more information, go to: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e4izajbwa7334ab5Informed Choices Medical Clinic Fundraising Banquet-
Informed Choices, a local medical clinic that offers life-affirming
alternatives to abortion for women who are in crisis pregnancies, will
be holding their annual fundraising banquet on Tuesday, October 25 at
the Coralville Marriott. For more information, go to: www.informedchoiceia.org.

St. George Fall Bake Sale- St. George Orthodox
Church in Cedar Rapids (3650 Cottage Grove Ave., SE) announces their
Fall Bake Sale beginning at 8AM on Saturday, October 29. Breakfast is
served at 8AM and lunch beginning at 11AM. Many delicious Middle
Eastern foods will be available for sale.

Feastday of St. Raphael Services- Our patron
saint is always commemorated on the first Saturday of November each
year. Therefore, on Friday, November 4, we will have Great Vespers with
Litia and Artoklasia at 6PM and on Saturday, November 5, Matins at
8:45AM followed by Divine Liturgy at 10AM. Come and celebrate our
patron saint!

Celebratory Tenth Anniversary Coffee Hour- November 6-
During the weekend that we will be celebrating our church's patronal
feast, we will also be recognizing that St. Raphael Church began ten
years ago, in 2001. To celebrate this important milestone of our
parish, we will be having a special pizza and ice cream birthday party
coffee hour following Liturgy on Sunday, November 6. In order to help
fund this, we will be asking for freewill donations over the next
several weeks by placing a basket near the food line at coffee hour.
Please be generous and help us to mark the passage of the first decade
of St. Raphael Church. If anyone has pictures of parish events that
they would like to share on this day, please speak with Kristi Abuissa
who can borrow your prints and electronically scan them.

Nov. 12-13 is Family Weekend at UI- We will be
inviting the families of Orthodox Christian students at the University
of Iowa to come visit St. Raphael Church during our weekend services on
November 12-13. This coincides with Family Weekend at the university.
For coffee hour, we would like to have an abundance of food for any
guests that come. If you are able to help out the food team that is
already scheduled to bring food that day (St. Raphael team) please speak
with the team leader, Fr. Ignatius.

Evening in the East- Feb. 16, 2012- Save the Date!-
Our 2012 Evening in the East is scheduled for Thursday, February 16 at
Old Brick. We are excited to announce that we will have with us, Dr.
Paul Barnes, professor of piano at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
School of Music, and also chanter at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church
in Lincoln, NE. Dr. Barnes will be giving a lecture/recital called
"Liszt and the Cross: Music as Sacrament in the B Minor Sonata" in which
he will explore this piece by composer Franz Liszt and relate it to
Orthodox theology of the icon. To help us plan our event, which takes
the cooperation and participation of our whole parish, we will soon be
placing a bulletin board up at church, dedicated to this event. This
will be a place for us to network, share ideas and keep informed on the
progress of our planning. The Parish Council is looking for a volunteer
or a small team of volunteers to step forward to be the main
coordinator(s) for this event. Please speak with Fr. Ignatius or our
council chair Todd Wiblin if you want to help in a leadership role with
Evening in the East.

Do You Have a Prayer Request? Please
give it to Fr. Ignatius and he will distribute it by email to all those
on the Prayer Chain. If you wish to join the Prayer Chain, please let
Fr. Ignatius know.

Holy Bread- On Sunday October 9, the
Branch/Peterson family will provide the holy bread. Thank you in
advance. Anyone who would like to provide the holy bread can sign up at
the bulletin board in the narthex. Bread seals are available to be
loaned out.

Choir Leadership- On Saturday October 8 and Sunday October 9, Tania Van Dinter will lead the choir.

Coffee Hour-
On Sunday October 9, the food for coffee hour and the cleaning of the
fellowship hall will be provided by the St. Raphael team.

Church Cleaning- During the week following
Sunday October 2, the cleaning of the nave, narthex, bookstore/library,
stairs, nursery and bathrooms will be provided by the St. Nina team.

Food for Thought-

Once, in a certain Russian monastery, as
Staretz Sampson tells us, during the Divine Liturgy, a monk remembered
that he was told to sweep the entrance of the monastery's [church] very
well.

"I might as well do it now," he thought, "since this part of the Divine Liturgy is not as important."

Therefore, the monk took the broom and
started sweeping. He was saying the Jesus Prayer silently and in a
noetic way, and from time to time, he would watch that which was being
served....

Not even five minutes had gone by when he
turned to look up to see the domes of the church suddenly opening and
the Triumphant Church appearing with all its majesty before him! It was
an awesome sight!

In the center, there was a Holy Table as big
as the sky. In front of it, three archpriests were on their knees.
Others... and others surrounded them...and a multitude of priests and
deacons surrounded the former. On the right and left sides angelic
choirs were standing in indescribable and glistening beauty. There was
inexpressible glory and light.... Moreover, the thousands of
honey-flowing, inconceivable molodies of the heavenly commanders who
were present filled him with divine blessedness and joy.

The monk remained motionless, rooted to the
spot until the Divine Liturgy had been completed.... When the monks
exited the church, they saw this monk, standing still. He was rooted to
the spot and in a flood of tears.... Not only was he wet inside out
but also his cloak was soaking from the flood of tears. Very carefully,
they took hold of him and without saying a word; they brought him very
gently to his cell where he remained for a long time in a state of total
amazement. Divine revelation had overwhelmed him.

When he got over it, his spiritual father
also arrived. The latter brought him around from all the tearing he
went through and then they went together to the abbott of the monastery
to whom they narrated the monk's exceptional divine vision with a sense
of awe and extreme humbleness.

Experiences During the Divine Liturgy by Stephanos Anagnostopoulos, pp. 454-455